Approximately 28,000 SUNY employees -- including 598 in NYC -- will see gradual bumps in their paychecks, under Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposal to increase the minimum wage of all state employees to $15 an hour. (Credit: Getty Images / Slaven Vlasic)

SUNY workers to get minimum wage hike under Cuomo’s plan

Approximately 28,000 SUNY employees – including 598 in NYC – will see gradual bumps in their paychecks, under Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to increase the minimum wage of all state employees to $15 an hour.

Cuomo also wants to make New York the first state in the nation to enact a $15 minimum wage for all workers.

Upon approval of the SUNY increase, paid staff, student workers and work study participants will be paid $9.75 an hour beginning next month, with wages reaching $15 an hour on Dec. 31, 2018 in New York City and July 1, 2021 elsewhere in the state, mirroring wage hikes for fast food workers secured last year and the hikes for state workers announced in October.

Cuomo also wants to make New York the first state in the nation to enact a $15 minimum wage for all workers.

“We are going to raise the minimum wage to bring economic opportunity back to millions of hardworking New Yorkers and lead the nation in the fight for fair pay,” Cuomo said at a rally yesterday at the Manhattan headquarters of Local 1199 SEIU.

About 927,400 employees in NYC – and 2,362,900 employes statewide (one quarter of the state’s workforce) - in all industries earn less than $15 an hour, according to the governor’s office.